Postcard
of Gratitude
It was
something outstanding. I had to be near my friends, to bring close those who
are not friends and to shake hands with those who consider themselves adverse.
From the intellectual and academic point of view, it was necessary for me
to recompense all they have offered to me, giving me the opportunity of crystallizing
this work; maybe, an exiguous part of my dreams.
My Palestinian blood has not become water. I have devoted a large part of
life in exile to being near my people, my birthplace Jerusalem...my house
made of stone there, the Old City of prophets and the Palestinian Jesus Christ.
From my pen to
my prose, I have expressed the necessity of life, I have been opposed to the
death and grief of people and I have emphasized that all human being had the
same need of equality and that nobody was a bearer of a divine message to
take off the life to the other one.
The violent uprooting
and exile are horrible and they are the worst humiliation suffered by a human
being. Maybe, the world has not realized yet what has happened to the Palestinian
people, what has happened to me and to my family as members of that people.
But I could not fill my heart with hatred or fill my pen with anger. Nor had
I to forget. I did not forget. I have kept that in my memory and – from
grief – I have learnt to apply the fortitude of forgiveness and I have
tried to transformed the tortuous past into a fruitful life expectancy.
In each Olive Tree for Peace that I have planted, I have placed that hope,
thinking of my children, the children of the others and the children of everybody.
But it was not only a hope of peace, a fragile and spurious word, but, fundamentally,
a search for dignity, which allows the human being to come across with himself,
to dignify himself and to dignify to his fellow creature.
These are the motivations which have mobilized me for sharing my feelings,
my trajectory and the love I feel for the fellow man, even for the one which
has caused me so much grief and suffering. This is my postcard of gratitude
and love.
Until
Jerusalem
Suhail Hani Daher
Akel,
in the spring of 2005
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